Quebec City pastor under investigation for child abuse

MONTREAL—Quebec City police say they are investigating allegations of abuse involving a religious leader accused of keeping at least seven young boys confined in his basement — in one case for 13 years.

At least three of the alleged victims testified they were handed over to the Baptist pastor by their parents at a young age and forced to live in the basement of the home he shared with his wife and children, according to court documents.

The boys, who were ages 5, 8 and 10 when their alleged ordeals began, were home-schooled by the pastor and taught a rigid interpretation of the Bible, according to the boys’ testimony summarized in Quebec family court judgments that ordered two boys into foster care earlier this year.

When the pastor’s orders were disobeyed, the boys testified they suffered cruel and severe punishments such as slaps and punches, the withholding of food and water or being subjected to extreme physical exercise, according to the court judgments.

A court order prevents the publication of any information that would identify the victims. The Star is not naming the pastor or the church. The pastor did not respond to multiple telephone messages and emails on Wednesday requesting an interview.

Quebec City police confirmed they have been investigating the allegations contained in the court documents since November 2014, but would not disclose the name of the individual allegedly responsible for the acts. No charges have been laid in the case.

The first child arrived in the pastor’s home in September 2001 at age 8. The boy testified in a family court hearing in February 2015 that his parents placed him in the pastor’s care because he was “a disruptive child.”

Over the next 13 years, six other children would later join him in the pastor’s basement before he managed to escape in August 2014 at the age of 21.

“I was his slave,” he testified. “I was brainwashed.”

According to his testimony, another child, who lived with the pastor from the time he was 10 to 16, between 2008 and 2014, was seen as “lazy” by the pastor and allegedly singled out for punishment.

“The first (example) goes back about a year when (he) had to perform 8,000 ‘burpees’ (a full body exercise) in a single day without drinking or eating. The other children counted . . . . In another punishment, (he) was deprived of food for 10 consecutive meals,” he testified.

That second child is now 17. At his custody hearing in February 2015, he said he still viewed the pastor as “his father,” according to a summary of his testimony contained in Judge Claude Tremblay’s ruling.

“He would be open to returning to live with the pastor who ‘taught him to be loyal and submissive, to respect authority and to obey,’ ” the judge wrote.

A third victim allegedly spent a decade, between 2004 and 2014, under the pastor’s control. He testified at his custody hearing in April that he was forced to stand in a corner without moving from morning until night for 41 straight days and had daily water rations so strict that the pastor forced him to leave the door open to ensure he didn’t drink from the faucet.

The alleged control was also psychological: “Each morning he had to confess his sins to (the pastor) who wanted to know if he had masturbated or if he had had sexual thoughts,” Quebec Court Judge Andrée Bergeron, wrote in her judgment ordering the boy, now a teenager, into foster care.

Child protection authorities started looking into that case in August 2013. The criminal investigation was launched last November, when the director of youth protection for the Quebec City region received a report about the welfare of the boy who was allegedly forced to perform burpees.

The head of the child-protection agency confirmed the investigation into the allegations but would not discuss details of the case. He said situations where children are under the control of an adult and cut off from schools or other public networks are “complex.”

“In a situation like these we are often meeting children who are prepared for our arrival, who have been prepared on what to say, to the police. That presents a problem because they know what to say, what information to give us to appease us,” Patrick Corriveau said.

“That (is) where it is important for someone from the environment to risk saying what’s happening, and say it loud and clear to help us in our work.”

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